Concert Review: Jason Aldean @ Broadview Stage at SPAC

Jason Aldean brought his 2023 “Highway Desperado Tour” to the Broadview Stage at SPAC on Sunday night. This was the first Country show of the 2023 SPAC season. Aldean is a superstar and it showed as thousands of fans arrived hours before doors opened. Lines started forming early, as fans queued up to claim the best spots on the general admission lawn and in the general admission pit. Several waves of heavy rains blew through the area, drenching the awaiting crowd. The precipitation did little to dampen the spirits of the brave souls who tailgated in the thunder and rain. The forty-one city tour kicked off on Friday night at Bethel Woods before heading to Hartford, CT for a performance on Saturday night. That show was cut short when Aldean suffered heat stroke midway through the headlining set. After abundant rest and hydration Aldean arrived at SPAC prepared to turn the Spa City into “Hicktown.” To date, he has released ten studio albums and forty singles to Country radio. He has been one of the most consistent hitmakers in Country Music since he released his debut album in 2005. Twenty-four of his forty singles have hit Number One on Billboard’s Hot Country Songs and Country Airplay charts. With that kind of catalog, Aldean has plenty of great songs to draw his setlists from.

The band took the stage at around 9:20pm to thunderous applause. They vamped as an enormous video projection screen showed the tour poster which burned away to reveal a silhouette of Aldean. Lights flashed and the screen switched to a three dimensional “JA” logo as Aldean made his way onto the stage to lead the band into opening track “Tough Crowd.” The song is about his fanbase. “I see girls with tattoos, good ol’ boys in cowboy hats, I see a few soldiers here tonight, welcome back.” He goes on to sing “We got some country ass, beer-drinkin’, hell-raisin’ go-all-nighters, we got some dirt-turnin’, diesel-burnin’, hard-workin’ 9-to-5ers, talk about a tough crowd.” Aldean loves his fans and he knows them very well. The video wall transformed into a thirty foot tall American Flag and he worked the crowd in the pit, bumping fists and signing autographs. He displayed no signs that he had a medical emergency just twenty-four hours prior. His energy level was impressive. He grabbed his black Gibson J-200 and launched the band into “Tattoos On This Town.” The stage had microphone stands on both sides of the stage and he spent time singing at them, giving fans on all sides a close up.

Aldean plays Country music but make no mistakes, this is a rock show too. His rhythm section of Tully Kennedy on bass and drummer Rich Redmond could anchor any hard rock act on the road today. Redmond is a beast behind the kit. Perched above the rest of the band, Redmond is the engine that drives the performance. Tully is locked in and their in-the-pocket rhythm gives the rest of the band room to rock. The twin-guitar attack of Jack Sizemore and Kurt Allison is complemented by the pedal-steel of Jay Jackson.

Songs from each of his ten albums made up the twenty-two track setlist. When you have twenty-four number one singles, it is hard not to play a greatest hits package every night. The show was well paced with the ballads sprinkled throughout the set. Sing-along anthems like “Take A Little Ride” were off-set by slow burning, slow jams like “Got What I Got.” There are approximatley 5200 seats inside the SPAC pavilion. While the seats all appeared to be sold, very few of them appeared to be used. Fans were on their feet from the beginning, until the end. In a show full of highlights, one song in particular stood out for me. A grand piano was wheeled to center stage and Aldean sat at the keys and played “If I Didn’t Love You” his smash duet with Carrie Underwood. Underwood appeared on the video wall and her vocals came through the speakers via backing track. The production and lighting on this tour are among the best I have seen. Once the last ballad was sung, the band hit the gas and didn’t slow down. They powered through “Hicktown” and “My Kinda Party” before a rocking “She’s Country” closed out the show.

Mitchell Tenpenny offered up a ten song, forty-five minute direct support set. His voice is distinct and soulful. His music is on Country radio but it would sound at home on the R&B and Pop stations as well. From his debut hit “Drunk Me” to “At The End Of A Bar” his most recent duet with Chris Young, Tenpenny’s songs explore love, heartbreak, loss and how alcohol factors into the aforementioned themes. Mitchell offered up an acoustic cover of the Goo Goo Dolls classic “Iris” that turned into a singalong. He closed his set out by offering up “Bitches,” a breakup song of sorts. “I could call you crazy, curse your name and throw your shit out the door… but I don’t deal with bitches no more,” he sings to an old lover. To hear thousands of people singing these lyrics back and forth with Tenpenny is certianly entertaining if not a little politically incorrect.

Bixby, Oklahoma native Corey Kent kicked the night off with a short set. The twenty-nine year old newcomer has grabbed the Country music world’s attention with his number one debut single “Wild As Her.” His set included a tight cover of The Beatles “Come Together.” Kent stuck close to the original arrangement. He closed his six song set out with “Wild As Her.”

Photo Gallery by Claude Sawyer